Writing this post on Sunday evening following England’s exit from the World cup you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out the headlines in the morning papers. At 2 -1 down Frank Lampard hit a screamer into the net via the bar only for the assistant and Referee to miss it crossing the line. If England go in at half time level from being two down who knows how the second half would have gone. The second game of the day also produced a controversial moment when Carlos Tevez scored the opener for Argentina from an offside position.

I have raised the question of not having camera technology on the goal lines previously in my blog. I have seen enough injustices in my time in the game to know goal line technology would make a difference. Games at the professional level are worth millions of pounds and with the pace of game as quick as it is today we can no longer rely on the human eye to make crucial decisions.

People’s livelihoods in the game rest on these decisions. I hope the FIFA panel that look at bringing in new technology are having an uneasy time in South Africa after these games today. If they need any more proof of how it can improve a sport they need only to look at Wimbledon and see how Hawkeye has taken the uncertainty out of tennis.

Pre season for most Championship teams gets under way tomorrow. At Ipswich we have spent the week end putting the finishing touches to the pitches in the first team field. With temperatures soaring into the low 30s on Sunday watering has been the main job. I am pleased with surfaces and feel they are in the best condition they have ever been for pre season. The pitches are being mown at 24mm. All the clippings are being removed.

Halfway through the Primo Maxx programme for the year and we are now seeing the density improves. Rooting has been observed at 300mm. There is strength in the leaf that impresses. I know this sounds daft but the only down side might be that the swards are too dense. I always like to start from a thick sward and am sure that with the rigours of pre season with double sessions the swards will thin naturally. Once we get the first couple of sessions under our belt and get the initial feed back from the players we will have a better idea.

Finally after weeks of planning Pink is here. The pitch is covered in the special flooring and the stage is built. I am observing the pitch under the cover at intervals during the day keeping a close eye on the temperature. So far so good. We have been applying water onto the steel floor around the stage to keep it from getting to hot. With a membrane underneath the steel it seems to be working. I accept the leaf will come out flat after six days and look very yellow but from this position I can bring it back.

I am working closely with the Stage company and promoter to ensure the damage is kept to a minimum. Everyone has a job to do and it’s good that we are all talking to each other when required. With only 48 hours to go the show we are almost there. We won’t know for sure how successful our concert programme has been for the pitch until the covers come of over Wednesday and Thursday but so far so good.

After weeks of planning for the Pink gig the final build up to the concert starts this week. Stage builders and pitch floor specialists will be on site on the 23^rd to start the works. Last week I travelled with the club architect to the Reebok stadium in Bolton to have a look at the stage.

 Bolton had the first gig last Saturday and as well as my visit colleagues from the clubs safety department attended the actual event.   Reports from their visit suggest the gig is quite a spectacle. It’s one thing to see a stage on paper but nothing beats seeing it for real.

Staging football matches is almost second nature to the clubs management teams up and down the country but when the stadium is required to host a non football event then everything changes. At Portman Road no stone is left unturned.

The frustration with this gig is that key information relating to the stage and other concert infrastructure changed several times during other legs of the tour. I like to have final drawings by the end of March at the latest to allow the engineers to carry out vital weight spread calculations. With Ipswich having a game against West Ham 21 days after the concert we cannot afford for any of the stage or delay towers to sink into the pitch.

Our final prep began last Thursday with the pitch being sprayed with a powerful fungicide. This was tank mixed with a liquid product to try and de stress the plant after the cover goes into place. The week will begin with a second spray application.

This time we will apply a growth regulator to try and maintain as big an air gap between the tip of the leaf and underside of the floor. Because of the quick turnaround back to football we will for the first time seed the pitch ahead of the floor going into place. My hope is that the micro climate under the floor will boost the germination of the seed giving us a head start when we come out of the gig after 7 days. I am confident what we are doing is right but am concerned that the growing time after the concert is short.

The World cup is now in full swing. It is the greatest show on earth and the second round of group games have finally brought the competition alive. After a nervy start by many of the competing countries there have been some really good games. One thing that has struck a chord with me is the way some commentators seem to be surprised by the performance of some of the smaller countries.

For me there are no easy games nowadays as many of the players taking part play there club football with some of Europe’s top clubs. Having said that I would still expect the eventual winners to come from one of the established countries but it is a measure of how far the smaller countries have come in recent years when Switzerland can beat Spain and New Zealand can drew with Italy.

After a difficult season of weather nearly all the clubs up and down the country are in the process of renovating there pitches. Whether in the main stadium or at the training grounds club staffs are working feverishly. Pre season is only three weeks away. Given the difficulty many including my own staff have had this season, the talk during the renovation period often gets round to what type of pitch could actually improve our situation.

In the professional game most of the clubs have moved to a sand dominated root zone with some form of re inforcing with clubs in some countries going the whole hog to synthetic. Pitch constructions featuring Fibresand or Desso grass master have become common place in the game and we at Portman Road are defiantly in the minority by staying 100% natural. I think I have said in previous posts that I would love to make a change probably to the new Fibrelastic type pitch currently in use at Newcastle United and Bristol City but to date it has proved cost prohibitive for us.

 The upcoming world cup in South Africa being played during there winter will no doubt add fuel to the debates for a while to come. Regardless of what pitch you are charged with looking after it will present challenges to you.  Although we have a maintenance programme that keeps producing a decent natural surface at Portman Road I have felt for some time that a sand dominated root zone with some form of re inforcement is the way forward for us. My main hope is that we can keep the synthetic pitches out of the professional game. There is no doubt they have made huge strides forward in quality and construction but they still cannot replicate grass fully.

We are now only three weeks away from the Pink concert at Portman Road. Getting the necessary information to hand on the weights for the stage and various towers to be built around the pitch has been difficult. In the last 24 hours we have had some final drawings sent to us which will finally allow the club architects to make the calculations which will allow us to spread the weight evenly over the floor preventing it sinking into the pitch. With the first game against West Ham only three weeks after the gig getting this wrong is not an option. The first UK gig is at Bolton on the 12^th June and I will be going up to have a look at the stage being built. Such trips are very useful in helping to understand what you are getting into. Believe me seeing the stage on a drawing is one thing seeing it in the flesh is quite another.